NMSLO News:
SANTA FE — The New Mexico State Land Office and the Mescalero Apache Tribe have postponed a public meeting that was scheduled to be held in Las Cruces Monday, Nov. 24, to share information and gather feedback from the local community regarding a potential land exchange, Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard announced today.
A previous community meeting held Nov. 7 at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum drew a standing room-only crowd, with attendees overflowing into the hallway and lobby. The State Land Office and the Tribe will reschedule the next public meeting on at date when a much larger space is available to adequately and safely meet everyone’s needs.
Acknowledging that the majority of lands the State Land Office currently stewards were once Indigenous lands, Commissioner Garcia Richard reached out to all Pueblos, Nations, and Tribes in New Mexico to gauge their interest in conducting land exchanges that would return lands of importance to their communities and allow the State Land Office to acquire lands better suited to its mission. In response, the Mescalero Apache Tribe approached the State Land Office to propose a land exchange that would return some ancestral lands near Las Cruces to the Tribe for as-yet-unidentified equal-value lands the Tribe would acquire and convey to the State Land Office. Since time immemorial and before being forcibly removed to the Mescalero Apache Reservation, the Mescalero Apache people inhabited the Organ Mountains, harvesting cactus and other plants, drinking from springs, and naming numerous landmarks that exist today.
The State Land Office is still in the early stages of reviewing the Tribe’s preliminary land exchange application and gathering more information. No final decisions have been made at this time.
As with any potential land exchange or large state trust land development potentially affecting the surrounding community, Commissioner Garcia Richard is conducting public meetings and an open public engagement process to hear feedback on the prospect of moving forward with a land exchange in which some or all of the identified state trust lands would be conveyed to the Mescalero Apache Tribe. In 2019, Commissioner Garcia Richard pushed the legislature to pass a new law that requires the State Land Office to host public meetings for any potential land exchanges.